


Drink Me

by Xephinetsa



Category: Jade Empire
Genre: Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-21
Updated: 2013-12-21
Packaged: 2018-01-05 09:32:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1092347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xephinetsa/pseuds/Xephinetsa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jen Zi finds Sky wasting away in the Heart of the Empire Tavern, several years after the Wheel of Life was returned to balance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Drink Me

Sky knows that he's had far too much to drink, but he doesn't care. He can hardly see for the vibrant colours and the disorienting blur that seems to intensify whenever he moves. He raises his hand, clumsily, and it falls back to his side, leaden and numb. The waitress approaches him, taking in his swaying form and reddened face. He opens his mouth to ask for another bowl of wine, but all that comes forth is a gurgling slur, hardly recognisable as words. He slides his hand down her leg and she slaps it away, removing the empty bowl from his grasp. "You've had quite enough," she says firmly, leaving him sprawled out on the floor.

A woman, dressed in red and blue silk, enters the tavern with smooth, graceful steps. Her quiet, calm presence somehow commands the attention of the entire room, and many eyes follow her progress. She approaches Sky, stretching languidly across a rug on the floor. At first she is angry with him for wasting himself so completely, but then her eyes soften with pity; for this is the man she once knew so well. They had been through hell together, the experience forming an unbreakable bond between them.

She lifts him to his feet and puts an arm around his waist, guiding his over her own shoulder. He is so wasted that she practically carries him out of the tavern, and into the cold evening air. She lays him beside the water and sits herself down, dangling her feet over the edge.

He stirs in the early hours of the morning, and she glances over at him, smiling sadly. "What have you done to yourself," she sighs. He clutches his head as he sits up and attempts to shake off the grogginess of the night before. "After you left, I... I couldn't live with myself anymore. I felt so lost without you. I felt as I did during my search for Gao. Except this time I didn't have a purpose. You had given me that, but when you left, I lost it again."  
He looks out upon the city across the river, tears glistening in his eyes.

She breathes deeply, wiping away her own tears. She knows her reasons for leaving, but she can't help but feel regret for leaving Sky behind. At the time, it had seemed like the best option. He loved her, but she could not return those feelings. Her heart belonged to another. "I loved you, you know," he says, turning to face her. "You were the first woman I truly loved after I lost my wife." He touches her arm, but she flinches away.  
She feels her eyes prickling as tears threaten to come again. "I know, Sky," she whispers. "But I couldn't love you back. My heart loved another, and... it still does. He... he's dead now, but I can't seem to move on. He haunts me."

Sky puts an arm around her and this time she doesn't flinch. "I guess we're both broken then, huh?"  
"I guess so."


End file.
